Monday, March 17, 2014

Updated June 13, 2014Now that ISIS has taken over Mosul and other key areas of Iraq, this posting is particularly pertinent.There's a new high tech weapon in
America's battle against terrorism and insurgency around the world and it consists of 140
characters or less.

That's right. The U.S.
Department of State is now using Twitter to fight terrorists everywhere with
their ThinkAgainTurnAway Twitter account.

So far, State has tweeted 371 times
and has a whopping 799 followers, including Anonymous Operations, Syrian
Freedom, the Wilson Center and a wide range of Americans and non-Americans from
just about any background you can think of.

As background, please keep in mind
that ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (aka Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant). Here is a screen capture showing the State's flag:

This terrorist group first appeared
in 2004 in Iraq, composed of Sunni Muslims who targeted the Iraqi government
and American forces; its original name, the Organization of Monotheism and
Jihad, was not exactly a captivating moniker. After several iterations,
the organization changed its name to ISIS to reflect its involvement in the
Syria civil war. ISIS is an affiliate of al-Qaeda and its key desire is
to unite the world's Muslims under one Islamic state that is ruled by sharia
law. It is currently attempting to build a proto-state along the boundary
between Iraq and Syria where there is a concentration of Sunni Muslims.
It has an estimated 7000 fighters in Syria who are both fighting the
Assad regime and attempting to solidify their grip on towns and cities behind
rebel/anti-Assad lines. Doula News English is part of ISIS.

Now, let's look at some of the
tweets from the Department of State to see the approach that they are using to
discourage terrorists and terrorism.

Here's a photo posted on JustPaste.It and Twitter by Doula News English/ISIS:

In response, State tweets "And
who will protect the Syrians from him and the other foreign mercenaries of
#alqaeda and #Assad". For your information, Omar al-Chechen or
Abu Omar al-Shishani was born in Georgia (birth name Tarkhan Batirashvili) and
was a sergeant in an intelligence unit of the Georgian Army. During the
summer of 2013, he was named commander of the northern sector of Syria.

Musa Cerantonio tweets this photo of
the ISIS flag made by his daughters and tweets "Made this a while back
with my beautiful daughters while playing with clay together":

In response, State tweets "How
many daughters will not be able to play with their fathers because of
extremists using this flag?".

Shami Witness tweets this photo
along with the caption "Danish fighter of ISIS, Ingmasi who stormed Iraqi
intelligence HQ":

In response, State tweets
"Another person deluded by #alqaeda hatred and brainwashing, another
wasted life for a lost cause".

Here's State's latest weapon against al Qaeda:

This tweet is supposed to scare people straight:

One more. Here is a rather
sobering photo of a ball bearing bomb along with the caption "gifts to
bashar forces":

In response, State tweets "How
many innocent civilians will die when this bomb detonates? #alqaeda won't
care".

The arm of State that is responsible
for ThinkAgainTurnAway is the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications
or CSCC. CSCC was founded within the Department of State in September
2010 with the mission of co-ordinating moves against anti-terrorist groups and
other extremists on the internet using the Digital Outreach Team (DOT).
DOT's mandate is to "directly "counter the al-Qaeda
narrative and propaganda in interactive digital environments".

While it is interesting watching State
trying to counter tweets made by terrorists, one has to wonder just how
effective this tactic is. I rather doubt that it has converted one single
terrorist to State's way of viewing the world. I suspect it will take far more than a stick or a stone from State to change the mind of a person that is willing to sacrifice their life for the sake of what they believe.

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About Me

I have been an avid follower of the world's political and economic scene since the great gold rush of 1979 - 1980 when it seemed that the world's economic system was on the verge of collapse. I am most concerned about the mounting level of government debt and the lack of political will to solve the problem. Actions need to be taken sooner rather than later when demographic issues will make solutions far more difficult. As a geoscientist, I am also concerned about the world's energy future; as we reach peak cheap oil, we need to find viable long-term solutions to what will ultimately become a supply-demand imbalance.